1438                                Laws of Maryland                        [Ch. 782

struction work including day labor, materials and equipment, an
amount not exceeding Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00) without
advertising or receiving bids. All such contracts shall be protected
by such bonds, penalties and conditions as the Commission may re-
quire, all of which shall be enforced in any court having jurisdiction.

589. For the purpose of paying the interest and principal of the
bonds issued by any said Commission as in this sub-title provided
for the water supply, sewerage or drainage systems to be constructed,
purchased or established under this sub-title, the said Commission is
hereby empowered to establish a proper and reasonable charge, not
less than the actual cost thereof, for connection with said water
supply, sewerage and drainage system so to be constructed, pur-
chased or established as aforesaid, and to fix an annual assessment
on all properties, improved or unimproved, binding upon a street,
road, lane, alley or right-of-way in which a water main, sewer or
drain has been built. The said annual assessment shall be made
upon the front foot basis, and the first payment shall be collected
during the year in which the construction is completed on the water
supply, sewerage or drainage systems, or in which the systems are
purchased or acquired. The said Commission for the purpose of
assessing benefits shall divide all properties binding upon a street,
road, lane, alley or right-of-way, in which a water pipe or sanitary
sewer is to be laid, into four classes, namely: Agricultural, small
acreage, industrial or business, and sub-division property, and the
Commission may sub-divide each of said classes in such manner as
it may deem to be in the public interest. Whenever any water supply
or sewerage project in said sanitary district or sanitary districts
shall have been completed by March 31st, in any one year, regardless
of when said construction was commenced, then the said Commission
shall fix and levy a benefit charge as of the first day of January of the
year in which the project was completed upon all property in said
sanitary district abutting upon said water main or sewer, in accord-
ance with the classification or sub-division thereof, and shall in writ-
ing, notify all owners of said properties into which class and sub-
division their respective properties fall and the charge determined
upon, naming also in said notice a time and place, when and at which
time said owner will be heard. Such notice may be mailed to the
last known address of the owner, or served in person upon any adult
occupying the premises or in case of a vacant or unimproved property
posted upon the premises. The classification of and the benefit as-
sessed against any property as made by the Commission shall be
final, subject only to revision at said hearing. The Commission may
change the classification or property from time to time as said prop-
erties change in the uses to which they are put. Said benefits shall
be levied for both water supply and sewerage construction and shall
be based for each class of property upon the number of front feet
abutting upon the street, lane, road, alley or right-of-way in which
the water pipe or sewer is placed; provided, however, that in the case
of any irregular shaped lot abutting upon a road, street, lane, alley
or right-of-way in which there is or is being constructed a water main
or sewer at any point, said lot shall be assessed for such frontage
as the Commission may determine to be reasonable and fair; and
provided further that no lot in a sub-division property shall be
assessed no more than one side, unless said lot abuts upon two
parallel streets, that corner lots may be averaged and assessed upon
such frontage as the Commission may deem reasonable and fair, and